Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

By David Shapiro

Saturday, January 20, 2001

Media can raise level
of public discourse

JAY Leno of the "Tonight" show had a gag the other night about President Clinton's dedication of the monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, D.C.

Clinton, said Leno, sees FDR as an inspiration -- even though he was in a wheelchair, he still was able to cheat on his wife.

It's the new no-holds-barred ethic in late-night comedy. Leno not only hit Clinton with shopworn material, but demeaned the memory of one of our great presidents in a way that wouldn't have happened in Roosevelt's time.

The joke didn't get much of a laugh -- possibly folks thought Leno was over the line or maybe younger people in the audience, who increasingly disregard the news, weren't sure who FDR was. They know now. He was just an old paraplegic philanderer.

Leno and competitors like David Letterman and Conan O'Brien have jumped into politics in a big way. Their acidic humor is part of a shift in how a cynical electorate gets information and forms opinions.

"People say Gore is a liar and Bush is a dumb guy.
Why can't we have a candidate that is
a liar and dumb at the same time?"
-- David Letterman

Between Labor Day and the 2000 election, George W. Bush was the target of 254 late-night jokes and Al Gore 165, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs. This was five times more jokes than Dan Quayle -- the original poster butt for late-night whippings -- endured in the 1988 and 1992 elections.

The revved-up comedy has impact. The Pew Research Center for People and the Press found last year that 24 percent of adults under 30 regularly obtain factual information about candidates from comedy programs and 55 percent sometimes do.

This alarms Bill Maher, host of "Politically Incorrect." On "Larry King Live," Maher said, "People say to me all the time, 'I get my news from your show.' I say, 'Well, you shouldn't.' "

Another Pew study found voters more satisfied with candidates and news coverage in 2000 than in 1992 or 1996, but less engaged and more cynical about politics than anytime in the recent past -- especially young voters.

It points up a clear link between the popularity of mean-spirited political comedy and greater cynicism about politics.

"I guess Dubya was fighting a cold during the debate.
That's the most he's sniffed since college."
-- Conan O'Brien

The insults and negative stereotypes didn't stop Bush and Gore from appearing on Letterman, Leno and "Saturday Night Live."

CANDIDATES covet the air time, said Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which found that the average sound bite of a candidate speaking on the nightly network news in 2000 fell to seven seconds -- an all-time low.

"When Gore went on Letterman in September," Felling said, "he was given more time to speak than on all three network newscasts combined in the entire month of September."

Felling said comics are following the mainstream news in the tone of their humor.

"The nastiness grows in unison with the nastiness of the overall journalism coverage," he said. "When the media start talking about Clinton's member, it gives the comedy writers more to work with."

If so, it's hypocritical for mainstream media to criticize the comics. We've led them into the gutter and it's time we set a new example that leads the political dialogue back to higher ground.

---

David Shapiro is managing editor of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at dshapiro@starbulletin.com.

Previous Volcanic Ash columns